Researching the Surname in France

I've spent quite a few hours both in libraries and on the internet searching all traces of the Jubinville surname in France.

For many years, we've only known what our first ancestor in Quebec (Michel) declared at his marriage in 1706 : that his parents were Marguerite Blainville and Pierre Jubinville. His father Pierre, he said, was a librarian-printer in Paris in the parish of St-Séverin—the heart of the old printer's quarter.

The Search for Living Relatives

Over the years we've searched French phone directories for any living Jubinville in France and found a sum total of ZERO. We always wondered why Michel came to Québec and why the name died out in France. The only clue was a tiny town called Jubainville in the Vosges region.

Key Findings (1999)

• The Amiens Connection: A genealogist published 5 generations of Jubainville (spelled with an 'a') spanning from 1650 to 1819 in Amiens, north of Paris. They were middle-class tradespeople in the textile industry, contemporaries of our Pierre.
• Strasbourg: We located two individuals named Jubainville in Strasbourg, though one had passed away and the origins of their name remained a mystery.

Research by Michel in Paris

My brother Michel, currently living in Paris, has searched the national archives:

• 1694: Records indicate an Etienne Jubinville, bookseller, was buried in Paris.
• Pierre Jubinville: Etienne's brother Pierre was present and described as a "bourgeois" (middle class).
• The St-Séverin Records: We hope to find Michel's baptism (c. 1670), though many records were destroyed in the 1871 fire at the Paris Town Hall.

Additional online research since

In the intervening years, more and more archives become freely available and searchable online. I spend idle time searching these now and again as they are always changing:

• 1714: I found a parliamentary appeal court decision regarding one Pierre Jubinville, described as a currency changer
• Link here to an english summary transcript and downloadable pdf file of the book pages.